The invention relates to a method for changing fiber sliver containers on textile machines and preparing the end of the fiber sliver for reception in a textile material processing machine. A fiber sliver container is filled with fiber slivers by a textile material delivering machine, the fiber sliver is cut after filling, and the can filled with fiber sliver is transported to a textile material delivering machine and delivered to this machine, as well as a device for the execution of the method.
According to the patent application papers laid open to public inspection no. DE 35 24 922, a device for changing empty textile material containers in the form of cans for filled cans on spinning machines is known. This device is a transport vehicle, on which several cans or textile material containers are deposited one behind the other. A can manipulating device is arranged on the transport vehicle and this device is in the form of a movable gantry carrier along the vehicle with a transverse boom. With this can manipulation device, single textile material containers can be lifted and conveyed between the transport vehicle and the spinning machine and deposited in the position appropriate at the time. The gantry embodiment of the can manipulation device requires considerable space, relatively, and the textile material container can only be placed at right angles to the path of the transport vehicle.
Further difficulties arise when putting down or picking up containers on the spinning machine, as the catcher device for the cans must be conveyed to the container from above and, for this reason, the space for the container must be free from superstructural parts or coverings of the machine. With other machines, this is not possible and this changing device for textile material containers cannot be used in these cases. Furthermore, the disadvantage remains with the use of this can changing device, in that when a filled can is brought to a spinning machine, the end of the sliver must be sought and fixed manually and subsequently brought into the spinning device. Through this requirement the automatic operating sequence is considerably disturbed and machine shutdowns frequently occur.
It is known that the joining of the sliver fiber to a textile material processing machine by means of a built in device can be automated. German patent application no. DE 35 01 875 shows a device of this type which is build onto a spinning machine. The device is arranged on a track over the spinning machine and includes a gripping device for fiber sliver containers as well as auxiliary devices for fixing the end of the fiber sliver. For the actual changing operation of full, or empty cans, a conveyor belt is arranged in the middle of the spinning machine, on which the full, or empty cans are moved along the machine axis. The containers are pushed into the working position on the machine by means of a gripping device arranged on the servicing device. Before the full textile material containers are brought onto the conveyor belt, the end of the fiber sliver is brought to a clamp fitted to the rim of the textile material container and positioned. The gripping device for the container on the servicing device is provided with rollers, by means of which the textile material container can be rotated on its longitudinal axis until the clamp or the end of the fiber sliver lies in a predetermined position. In this position, the textile material container is deposited in its working position on the machine and the joining device arranged on the servicing position can take over the end of the fiber sliver. It is apparent that this device does not permit fully automatic operation, as the end of fiber sliver must be fixed manually on the textile material container. Moreover, the empty and full textile material containers must be removed from, or brought to, the conveyor belt by auxiliary means. A servicing device is necessary on every side of every machine, which leads to a considerable investment. Moreover, this type of textile material container changing is only possible with machines which are designed appropriately and can only be used with combination or total installations with these special machines. All other machines must be operated by other equipment or manually.
A further device for feeding the fiber sliver from a textile material container to a textile machine, in particular a drawing frame, is known from the European Patent Application No. 301 330 A1. With this device, the full textile material containers are placed in parallel in front of the working places of the machines. A hydraulic slider device is assigned to each of the containers in the waiting position. A movable truck with a catcher for the fiber sliver is arranged in a waiting position above the containers. This catcher can be moved on the outer surface of a textile material container and thereby catches an end which is hanging down the side. After picking up the fiber sliver, the catcher lays it on a feeding device on the textile machine. With this known device, the full textile material containers are brought to the machine through a known transport means. The depositing by the machine is clearly effected manually or with conventional auxiliary means, such as slider devices. The containers must first be deposited in a waiting position, so that the fiber sliver end can be sought and passed to the textile machine. In a further stage of operation the full containers are slid into the machine and the empty containers are pushed out by the full ones. This, again, must be carried out manually and the containers removed from the machine with known auxiliary means. This arrangement requires a large amount of space around the machine as a waiting area for the full containers, discharge places for empty containers, and space for the slider device are necessary for every container. Furthermore, the changing operation is time consuming, as several consecutive operational stages are necessary. As the truck with the catcher device for the sliver can only serve one container, the block change described, in which all the containers must be exchanged, is very time consuming. During this time, the machine must be stopped, which leads to high production losses.